Massoia's lutrine opossum (''Lutreolina massoia'') is a species of

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North A ...

native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Taxonomy

It was formerly considered a disjunct population of the

big lutrine opossum The big lutrine opossum (''Lutreolina crassicaudata''), also called little water opossum, thick-tailed opossum and coligrueso, is a long-tailed, otter-like mammal native to grasslands of South America. It generally lives near water and is active a ...

(''L. crassicaudata''), but a 2014 study determined it to be a distinct species and described it as such. It is possible that climatic changes in the past led to an expansion of vegetation in the Dry Chaco, allowing the ancestral ''Lutreolina'' to cross it, with the later aridification of the Chaco isolating both species and leading to their divergence. This species was named after Argentine zoologist Elio Massoia, who made significant contributions to the knowledge of South American mammal diversity, and was among the first researchers to notice the distinctiveness of the ''Lutreolina'' populations of the

Yungas The Yungas ( Aymara ''yunka'' warm or temperate Andes or earth, Quechua ''yunka'' warm area on the slopes of the Andes) is a bioregion of a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru and Bolivia, and extends i ...

Distribution

It ranges from south-central

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

south to northern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, where it is restricted to the

region just east of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. It has a different habitat from ''L. crassicaudata'', being found primarily in lowland

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

grasslands. It seems to primarily use areas with dense ground cover and aquatic environments.

Description

''L. massoia'' is smaller in size than ''L. crassicaudata'', and differs in the size and shape of the skull, as well as in the dentition.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16335777 Opossums Marsupials of Argentina Marsupials of Bolivia Mammals described in 2014 Southern Andean Yungas